Nani has been unstoppable at box office with a row of hits starting from Bhale Bhale Magadivoy till MCA. Can he continue the streak with Krishnarjuna Yuddham directed by Merlakapaka Gandhi who delivered back to back hits?

What is it about?

Krishna (Nani) is a villager who is desperate to have a girlfriend. Arjun (Nani) is a rock star who is a Casanova. Krishna finds Riya (Rukhsar) a medico from Hyderabad and Arjun bumps into Subba Lakshmi (Anupama) who doesn't even pay attention to him. Arjun transforms into a good person to win Subba Lakshmi's heart. Krishna also succeeds in winning Riya's heart. At that point both the girls get kidnapped by a woman trafficking racket. Now Krishna and Arjun unites to fight for their missing girlfriends.

Performances:

Nani enjoyed playing Krishna, who mouths dialogue in Chittoor accent. He is superb in comedy scenes and keeps the spirits alive in the first half with his timing. As a rockstar Nani couldn't impress much. The swag and style associated with a rockstar is totally missing. Nani tried his best to penetrate into the masses with heavy duty action, but comedy and emotions seems to be his forte.

Anupama is alright in a one dimensional character. Rukshar has a camera friendly face and did okay as another female lead. Brahmaji offers some rib tickling moments as Arjun's manager. Sudarshan, Mahesh and Prabhas Srinu are good in their respective roles.

Technicalities:

Merlapaka Gandhi has a very good sense of humor. His first two films Venkatadri Express and Express Raja did well because of rib tickling comedy. This time the director tries his hand at making a formulaic commercial film. He has once again proved his authority over comedy in KAY, but couldn't succeed in delivering a satisfactory masala film on a whole. There are moments here and there that have come out well, but the film fails to deliver those knockout masala moments that click with the masses. Director has shown decent grip over proceedings until the first half, but failed to keep the interest alive in the action packed second half.

Hiphop Thamizha's background music stands out. It elevates some of the weakest scenes too. However the soundtrack is pretty ordinary barring Daari Chudu song. Cinematography is neat and editing is fine. Production values are very good. It looked like a high budget film in every frame.

Thumbs Up:

Nani as Krishna

Comedy in first half

Background score

Thumbs Down:

Nani as Arjun

Action part in second half

Weak script

Analysis:

Krishnarjuna Yuddham is a typical commercial film covering all the essential elements like comedy, romance, action and emotion. Director Gandhi did his best to deliver a neatly packaged masala film, but lost grip on the proceedings midway. After a fairly entertaining first half aided with good humor and cute romance track of Krishna, the film gets very serious in the second half.

Both the heroines are kidnapped at the interval point and from there it is a never ending chase to track them down. There is a desperate attempt to incorporate comedy into this action zone and the director even took liberty to squeeze in a couple of songs. Despite that second half runs on a single note where both the 'heroes' are on a mission to track down their missing girlfriends. Even Nani who is capable to cover up the weaknesses of a film is left helpless at times.

The film's USP is Krishna character that is extremely entertaining and almost single handedly runs the show in the first half. Director did a huge mistake by turning it emotional post interval. Woman trafficking issue is a serious one that didn't let the film to get back into entertaining mode at any moment. Viewers that enjoyed the first half will be left hugely disappointed with the second half that hardly has any crowd pleasing moments and drags on forever.

Arjun's character is not written well and Nani too looked under prepared to play it. Entire flirting episodes and his love track with Anupama are super boring as they were seen in many films earlier. This track only comes alive when Brahmaji is on screen with his splendid comedy timing. Krishna and his friends save the day in the first half with their funny antics and conversations. Daari Chudu song also comes at the right time to keep the spirits alive.

It could have been a passable commercial entertainer if the second half also continued that entertaining tone. With director going away from his comfort zone even Nani couldn't do much in the second half thus making it the weakest of the actor's recent outings. This film will be the true test for Nani's crowd pulling capabilities.